Heir Of Chaos

Dale leaned back, watching the edge of the blade miss his neck for the second time in a short period of time.

He sidestepped a jab from the deserter and even the few attacks that followed.

Despite wielding a weapon, he seemed rather unskilled with it. It was no different from a random thug swinging a knife.

’Okay, this is getting tiring.’ He still hadn’t recovered and dodging constantly was starting to weigh on him.

Dale kicked back, putting some distance between them. The deserter’s blade swung down.

While it was still down, Dale shot forward. He wrapped his arms around the forearm of the former and spun.

His legs twisted around the deserter until he was behind him.

With one fluid motion, he kicked the knife out of the deserter’s hands. The deserter was about to make a run for it but Dale wouldn’t let him.

He closed the distance and slapped a hand over his mouth.

From outside, he heard Sera. "Ghost Killer. Have you seen anything?" Her voice sounded a little eager, meaning her search must have been fruitless.

Dale turned to the deserter and started weighing his options. On one hand, he could just take him straight to her and be free of the task.

And on the other hand, he could see what sort of information the deserter had and determine if it was worth the risk of betraying Sera.

The second option won. For him to sell it, he had to sound sincere.

Dale cleared his throat, "No, I’m still looking."

Sera audibly sighed and started mumbling to herself but her voice soon turned distant as she left their immediate surroundings.

He stared at the deserter and slowly removed his hand from the other’s mouth.

The latter’s eyes widened as he understood what Dale had just done for him. His eyes finally scanned Dale’s uniform.

It was torn and barely recognizable but it was recognizable nonetheless.

"You’re with the military?" The deserter asked.

Now that Dale heard his voice, it seemed to confirm something for him. There was a particular youth in his voice that was impossible to miss.

Dale nodded. "Yeah, I’m a second-year recruit."

The deserter nodded and pulled off his mask. Surprisingly — or not — he seemed to be roughly the same age as Dale himself, maybe even younger.

"I’m Matt." The deserter stretched out his hand and Dale hesitated but took it.

He stared at Matt’s face for a while. The latter had bright brown hair and an air of joy around him that seemed to placate any form of caution targeted at him.

His youthful appearance was worn down by the grime and dirt on his skin so it did little to affect Dale.

"So why exactly have you been classified as a ’Deserter’ who is capable enough to have a mercenary group led by an Ascended come after you?"

Matt shook his head. "I... I was just like you but I suppose now I’m meant to be in my third year. This was my last task for the year."

Dale raised an eyebrow. ’Well, I don’t know what to believe.’ He needed specifics as soon as possible.

For all he knew, Matt was just buying time so he could escape. Time was not on Dale’s side, however.

If Sera came before he had gotten the information he needed, he would undoubtedly hand him over to the Ascended.

But on the other hand, if the information was worth it, he would see how he could lie further.

Dale’s hand shot forward and wrapped around Matt’s throat. "I don’t believe you nor do I have reasons to. Tell me specifics, or I’ll hand you over to the client myself."

Matt sighed and started. "The task was meant to be simple. It was just to work for a private company for roughly a month."

"At least that’s what it was meant to be but it seemed like the military knew what they were doing by placing a recruit in the company. The entire company was under suspicion of aiding the Aereon kingdom."

Dale’s eyes widened and he loosened his grip on Matt, staggering back.

The implications were massive. It finally made sense why they wanted Matt dead. He obviously hadn’t managed to report the information directly to the right military heads so they wanted to make sure he never did.

’He must have found something heavy.’ As much as Dale wanted to know what that was, knowing would undoubtedly put him in unnecessary danger and he already had a knack for danger as it was.

If somehow, the company got a hold of Matt and he told them what he had told Dale, then he’d be in trouble.

’A company within the Utra nation with enough gall and freedom to possibly aid the Aereon kingdom without the government being able to openly investigate them.’ It sort of implied that the owners of the company had some level of influence within the nation.

That was impossible, however. The only people who had a semblance of similar importance to the nation were the... ’Families.’

The special families who were given waivers. All of them were incredibly rich and influential — hardly ever appearing in public after receiving their waivers.

He had always thought them to spend their time doing whatever it was that rich people did. Now that he had met Trevor and the latter had explained, he knew far more.

’So not only was an organization helping the enemy but it was backed by a family.’ And to make matters worse, it certainly explained a few things.

The most glaringly obvious one was why Matt hadn’t followed the previous caretaker of Watchtower One.

If Sarah and Gustav — both direct heirs of the big families — were in the military then who knew how many workers or those loyal to them were also there.

Who knew, maybe even the previous caretaker had been working for the family backing the company.

That would certainly explain how they knew about the existence of Watchtower One and its location.

With every deduction, Dale realized that the web ran deeper than he could have dreamed.

’Ahh... How did I find myself in the midst of political plots?!’ Needless to say, it was very troublesome.